This application relates to a tool for use in preparing conduit for housing electrical wiring, and more particularly, a tool for deburring thin wall conduit prior to the insertion of electrical wires.
When attending to the wiring of a house and the like in the construction trade, thin wall conduit has traditionally been the favored manner of housing the wiring within the walls. The general practice has been to cut the conduit to the necessary size and form it to follow a desired path, being connected either to other conduits or to electrical boxes where connections of the wires may be made to switches, lamps or the like. When a conduit is cut to size in such a process, whether it be by hacksaw or tubing cutter, a rough edge of burrs is generally formed on the interior edge of the cut of the conduit. It becomes necessary to eliminate these burrs prior to the assembling of the conduit to another conduit or to an electrical box. Should the burrs not be removed in some manner, when the wire is drawn through the conduit, leading in from one electrical box and exiting from another electrical box to supply or control power as desired, the burrs remaining on the inside edge of the conduit will scrape against the plastic insulation sheathing of the wire, thereby exposing the wire. Such damage is generally unnoticeable within the conduit. Since the damage remains outside the viewing area of the electrician, such a defect may come to light only after the entire system is installed and connected to power. When the power is turned on a short may occur should the exposed wire be in contact with the metal wall of the conduit.
Such a potentially dangerous situation therefore must be corrected, preferably prior to experiencing a short. Generally, the situation is avoided by filing the cut ends of the conduit or otherwise deburring such ends prior to assembly and pulling the wire through. Various tools have become available for such deburring action. Generally such tools are simple homemade devices which have been converted from another tool. As a result, while such tools may remove the unwanted burrs, there is not much efficiency in their use. Further, it is often necessary to utilize conduits of different outside diameters, the most common being 1/2 inch, and 3/4 inch O.D. In order to have the capability of properly and quickly deburring each of these conduit sizes, one must have different deburring tools properly sized for each conduit diameter. Not only do three separate deburring tools add to the expenses of a workman's tool kit, but it becomes inconvenient and impractical to retain three such deburring tools within reach at all times. In addition, valuable space is consumed within the workman's toolbox.
Therefore, an object of the subject invention is the provision of a deburring tool which will accommodate a plurality of conduit sizes and effectively deburr conduits of each size.
Another object of the subject invention is a deburring tool used for deburring a plurality of conduit sizes while being capable of being retained within easy and convenient reach for the workman.
A still further object of the invention is a deburring tool capable of deburring a plurality of conduit sizes while needing only a minimum of space in the workman's toolbox.